


when i fall in love (i'll take my time)

by owlinaminor



Series: ushiten week 2016 [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, that awkward early period when you just started dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-12 06:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7090447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“Hey, Wakatoshi,” he finally says, unable to hold himself back, “do you think we’re doing this right?”</p>
  <p>“Doing what right?”</p>
  <p>There’s a rustling noise followed by a dull thump, and then Satori turns his head to find Ushijima lying on his side in the grass beside him, staring at him with an expression more difficult to decipher than the shape of the clouds up above.</p>
  <p>“This … dating thing,” Satori explains.</p>
  <p>Or, apparently, fails to explain, because Ushijima clearly has even less idea what he’s talking about than before.</p>
</blockquote><p>(or: the occupational hazards of basing your relationship expectations on shoujo manga)</p>
            </blockquote>





	when i fall in love (i'll take my time)

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [当我陷入爱河时（我会慢慢来）](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11072868) by [Definro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Definro/pseuds/Definro)



> for ushiten week, day four. the prompt was lunch date - and they are, technically, on a lunch date, but their conversation might not be what you would consider typical lunch date conversation. (is there such a thing as typical lunch date conversation? is there such a thing as conversation? are we all entirely alone in the universe?)
> 
> anyway; thanks [becky](https://twitter.com/dickaeopolis) for beta-ing, and today's fic title is from [the remedy by jason mraz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttvRvja_524)

The park is mostly empty.

Satori is surprised – it’s a beautiful summer day, with the sun twinkling gaily overhead and just a hint of breeze, and the park is full of grass to nap in, benches to walk along, trees to climb up.  He’d expected it to be playing host to a veritable army of mothers with strollers, kids in ripped shorts, and old couples going for midday strolls.  But instead, it’s just him and Ushijima, a couple of little girls playing on the swings, and a wrinkled old gentleman walking his dog.

“Why d’you think the park is so empty?” Satori asks, looking over their makeshift picnic blanket (both of their gym towels laid on top of the other) at Ushijima.

Ushijima shrugs and grabs an onigiri from the half-empty package in the middle of the towel.  “It’s Saturday.  People have more interesting things to do.”

“You don’t think this is interesting?” Satori exclaims.  He sits up more fully and stares at his captain.  “I’m sorry I suggested it – I thought you would like it – we can do something more interesting for our next date –”

“Hey.  Satori,” Ushijima says, drawing his eyebrows together.  “I do like it.  It’s …”  He takes a bite of onigiri and chews thoughtfully.  “Peaceful.”

“Oh.”  Satori grins, relieved.  “Well.  I’m glad you like it, then.”  He snags an onigiri for himself before Ushijima can eat them all, then lies down on his back in the grass next to their towels and folds his arms beneath his head.  The grass is soft, kind-of ticklish, and much less prone to sweatiness than his bed at home.  He thinks that if he wasn’t so nervous about this date (and it _is_ a date, Ushijima hadn’t corrected him when he said _next date_ – or, Ushijima _had_ corrected him, but about something different) he could really appreciate the peace and quiet that accompanies being done with practice for the week, maybe even take a nap.

Satori watches the clouds, passing by overhead like giant fluffy ships in a sea of pale blue.  He tries to look for shapes – animals, maybe, or cars, or mountains – but he can’t shake his nervousness, lurking beneath his brain like a humming generator making it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

“Hey, Wakatoshi,” he finally says, unable to hold himself back, “do you think we’re doing this right?”

“Doing what right?”

There’s a rustling noise followed by a dull thump, and then Satori turns his head to find Ushijima lying on his side in the grass beside him, staring at him with an expression more difficult to decipher than the shape of the clouds up above.

“This … dating thing,” Satori explains.

Or, apparently, fails to explain, because Ushijima clearly has even less idea what he’s talking about than before.

Satori closes his eyes and tries to focus, tries to put his restless uncertainty into words.  “It’s like … it’s been two weeks since we confessed to each other, right?”

“Two weeks since I confessed to you, and you make strange screeching noises at me until Semi said you felt the same way,” Ushijima corrects.

Satori covers his face with his hands at the memory – he can feel his cheeks going strawberry-red.  “Okay, whatever.  Two weeks since we started … Whatever this is.  Dating.  But it doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to.”

Ushijima lifts Satori’s hands off his face and pokes him in the cheek – gently, kindly, like a bear cub examining a new patch of berries.  Satori opens his eyes and looks up to find the sky has been replaced by Ushijima’s face – harsh angles, sharp cheekbones, and large, chocolate eyes with the slightest glint of gold, as though the sun is hiding somewhere deep inside.  His heartbeat picks up, the same way it does at the whistle marking the start of a game – except right now, the only sounds are cicadas buzzing and the rustle of wind over the grass.

“What is it supposed to feel like?” Ushijima asks.  Upon further examination, Satori realizes that he’s lying on his side, head propped up on one elbow.

“It’s … I don’t know, exactly,” Satori admits.  “But I’ve read a lot of shoujo, and when the protagonists start dating at the end, it’s always really cute, y’know?  Like, holding hands, and blushing –”

“You were blushing just now,” Ushijima points out.  He reaches one hand and pokes Satori’s cheek again – it flushes in response, as though to prove his point.  (Satori doesn’t understand how Ushijima and his body are, apparently, in league against him, but he really is not a fan.)

“Okay, but that’s not the point!” Satori exclaims.  “The point is, dating is supposed to be all _romantic_ , with, like, big gestures, and cool kisses, and stuff.  All we’ve been doing is hanging out like we usually do, except the team’s been teasing us more.  It doesn’t really feel like anything’s _changed._ ”

A dog barks on the other side of the park, followed by its owner’s shout.  Then, Ushijima says slowly, “Satori, do you want me to kiss you?”

“ _What_?” Satori yelps.  He surges up from the ground and stares at his – friend? boyfriend? he doesn’t even know, honestly – shaking as though he just finished a five kilometer run.  “I mean, yes!  No!  Not right now!  Maybe!”

“It’s okay if you don’t,” Ushijima says.  “This might not be the best place for it.”

“But is it?   _Is_ it okay?” Satori asks, covering his face again.  His hands are nice.  Warm.  Much less scary than the thought that he’s completely fucked up his first relationship before it can even properly start.  “In Fruits Basket, Tooru and Kyo had kissed before they even started dating!”

“We’re nothing like the characters in Fruits Basket,” Ushijima replies.

Satori rearranges his fingers to peek at Ushijima with one eye.  “How do you know that?”

“You explained the plot of the whole series to me on the bus ride home from a training camp last year,” Ushijima reminds him.

“Oh.  Yeah.”  Satori removes his hands, only to stare down at them sheepishly.  “I didn’t realize you remembered.”

Ushijima frowns at him, as though to say, _of course I remember._  And maybe, Satori thinks, maybe he has a point.  In all of the shoujo he’s read, there’s been some kind of special reason why the main characters can’t get together – like, one of them turns into a cat whenever he’s hugged by a girl, or one of them thinks the other one thinks she’s a guy, or one of them is a vampire, or they both think they’re in love with other people, or they’re just huge idiots – so that when they finally do, they have to release all of these pent-up emotions from years of pining all at once.  But Satori doesn’t have that, he doesn’t think.  He and Ushijima have from now to the end high school, maybe, to figure out this dating thing.  That’s a lot more time than it took him to learn to block, or to do trigonometric equations, or to make Ushijima laugh.

“So, you think it’s okay if we just … do the stuff we want to do, and don’t try to rush stuff we’re not sure about?” he asks.

Ushijima nods.  “Yeah.”  He glances up at the sky, then at the grass, then back at Satori.  “So … _do_ you want me to kiss you?”

“Not – not right now, or - or right here,” Satori stutters.  “But maybe … later.”

“Maybe later,” Ushijima agrees.  He rolls over onto his back and rests his arms behind his head, the way Satori was doing before.  Satori lies down next to him.

“We could try holding hands, though,” Satori suggests.  “That might be nice.”

“Okay.”  Ushijima reaches out, and Satori meets him halfway.  Ushijima’s hand is rougher than Satori’s, his fingers thick and calloused from years of spiking practice, but it’s warm, and feels comfortable in Satori’s.  This – holding hands – is a similar feeling to when Satori first held a volleyball – as though this is what his hands were meant to do.

Satori looks up at the sky and wonders where the clouds come from, what the different kinds are called, if they’re sad when they dissolve into rain.  He wonders which teams Shiratorizawa will play at the end of the summer, and how interesting the games will be, and how much time he’ll get to spend on the court.  He wonders what Washijou’s plans for tomorrow’s practice are, and which classes will be most fun in school next week, and what his mother is making for dinner tonight.  He wonders what his and Ushijima’s next date will be like.  And if, maybe, that’ll be when they kiss.

And then, he glances across the park and notices that the swing set is free.

“Come on!” Satori exclaims, jumping to his feet and pulling Ushijima up with him in one swift motion.  “I bet I can swing higher than you!”

Satori takes off for the swings, shaking off his tiredness and nervousness to fly across the small park like an eagle taking flight - and he doesn’t have to look to know that Ushijima’s following him.

**Author's Note:**

> don't! base! your! relationship! expectations! on! manga! or on fanfiction, for that matter. pining for three years and then making out really passionately in the rain is not as common as you might think, folks.
> 
> hmu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/owlinaminor) or [tumblr](http://owlinaminor.tumblr.com/) if you want to talk about relationships, or ushiten, or shiratorizawa, or ... you get the picture.


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